Manchester United’s new part-owners, INEOS, have ended a multi-million-pound annual commitment to legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
After his exit as manager in 2013, Ferguson has been retained as a global club ambassador and club director and remunerated with an annual salary.
The only official description of Ferguson’s services as an ambassador to the club is in their 2014 accounts under the related party transactions section, which states that the Scot signed an agreement on October 17, 2013, in which he became a global ambassador and received £2.16 million for his services, an arrangement that continued for over a decade.
The 92-year-old has remained a United director on the club’s football board, which has appeared to be a largely ceremonial construct for quite some time and is not a member of the club’s official board — which includes the six Glazer siblings, as well as INEOS co-owner John Reece and INEOS Sport’s chairman Rob Nevis.
INEOS has been exhausting all avenues to reduce costs, and that led it to look into the club’s commitment to Ferguson, who is still a regular attendee of games in the directors’ box for both home and away matches.
But now, in a face-to-face meeting at Old Trafford, INEOS founder and CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe told Ferguson that the club is seeking to reduce costs and is no longer prepared to sustain his payments.
According to The Athletics, a United sources, said that the matter has been dealt with amicably and Ferguson will remain a non-executive director at the club and be welcome to attend games.
The club’s majority owner, the Glazer family, has previously been satisfied to sanction the payments to Ferguson.
According to sources familiar with the thinking of Joel and Avram Glazer, the most prominent of the siblings at United, they believe much of the value that the club continues to generate is owed to Ferguson’s work and legacy, and therefore they do not begrudge him a handsome settlement following his retirement.
